


It's Five o'clock nowhere

by GeometryOfTime



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, It doesn't end in tears though, M/M, So much angst, Temporary Character Death, Trippy, season 2 spoilers!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:34:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25859788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeometryOfTime/pseuds/GeometryOfTime
Summary: "I can't feel Ben. I can't feel anyone.” Klaus can’t feel Five, and he’s right there. "It's... eerie.""It's because you can't use your powers here. And-" But he doesn’t finish the sentence, though Klaus can read in his eyes that it’s for the better."Oh." Strangely enough, it feels like Five’s words should make sense and this calms Klaus. "Alright." He stares out the window and, for a brief moment, the light seems rough, artificial. He frowns. "Whereishere?""Well, it's nowhere, really. But the most important thing is, it's not now. None of it is happening now. And, if I can help it, none of it is happening at all."
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 2
Kudos: 83





	It's Five o'clock nowhere

**Author's Note:**

> As always - all the thanks to lokiskliego for the beta and the beautiful words! <3

The girl keeps talking but Klaus has stopped listening long ago. They’re in the mess hall and it suddenly occurs to him that he doesn't remember how he got there.

“Listen, uh-” He looks at her expectantly, but she doesn't give her name _._

“Listen, I think I need to go back to what I was doing.” 

She smiles at him, a small, contained smile, and though it’s meant to be warm, it feels hollow.

“Of course, I’m sorry about that. I’ll let you to it, then.” She says, and melts away.

Klaus gets up from the plastic chair and heads out, unfazed at how the room, and everything in it, stop existing once he’s out. He steps further into the hallway, and looks at the long row of doors on each side. Some are open, but Klaus can’t see in them past a warm halo of light. _Huh, such a sunny day,_ he thinks idly as he reaches for another door. Locked. He moves away and, with the corner of his eye, he sees that the door handle he’s just released was, in fact, a blade. He blinks and when he focuses again, it’s just a regular door handle.

The corridor is now bustling with movement; it’s full of kids running every way, a small group congregating around a table, chattering away excitedly, and then Klaus hears a voice. He cocks his head at the voice; he knows it. It doesn’t seem like he knows many things at the moment, but that, that was familiar. He sees the flashes of a different kind of school uniform than the other kids are wearing, midnight blue with dark red borders, and it shouldn’t stand out the way it does, and yet- 

Klaus is drawn to the table, and even though he’s taller than all the kids, he can’t seem to make out the face of the dark-haired one that had drawn his eyes. He can see the boy hunched over a notebook, scribbling away, speaking more to himself than to the other children around him, and there’s something there, something that begs for a reaction but Klaus can’t make sense of it. He turns away, for just a moment, when he hears a faint whooshing sound behind him, and when he looks back at the table, there’s no one there. 

The memory of the kids, the table, of that one particular boy, they all dissipate slowly and Klaus is okay with that. He’s oddly… okay. There’s a small niggling sting at the back of his mind, something that feels like he’s forgetting something, but he neither knows what, nor why he should care. He’s fine, everything is fine - is he high? He doesn’t think he is, this doesn’t feel like any high he knows.

There. Another door. Maybe it just appeared out of nowhere, maybe it’s always been there, it’s hard to tell. But it’s right there, and Klaus thinks he should perhaps have a look inside. 

He opens the door gently, something heavy knotting itself in his throat as he pushes it and he’s engulfed by a haze of white light, swallowed by a sunbeam. He’s on his bed now, in his room at the Academy, head resting on his pillow, squeezing the hand that’s draped around his chest. It feels good to be there, and Klaus thinks he should stay for a while. He knows he should feel uneasy about the wetness pressed against his back, because there’s something so _unsettling_ about it, but he doesn’t know why so he just ignores it. He’s warm with the heat of the body hugging his back, knees pressed behind his own, legs tangled, and he smiles when he feels lips touching his shoulder.

“Hey.”

He melts at that voice, he feels at home in it. 

“Hey. I’ve been looking for you.” And it just occurs to Klaus that he has. Finally, a certainty settles itself semi-solidly in his brain. 

“I know, baby.”

Klaus looks at his chest, where their fingers are interlaced, and just basks in the sensation. Everything else feels dulled, shapeless, but this? This he knows. This feels solid, immovable, big, and even though he can’t name it, he can barely understand it, it feels like he doesn’t have to. This, here, them. It’s- _good._ He lifts their hands to place a kiss on his fingers - like always, he thinks wildly, even though he has no recollection of having done this before - and that’s when he sees it. On the inside of the man’s wrist, faded black against sandy skin: a tattoo, the sight of which causes a visceral reaction in Klaus’ mind.

Suddenly they’re not in his room anymore, they’re in the parlour, and he’s kneeling by a pool of blood, and there’s screaming, and his heart aches. 

“Diego!” A woman’s voice comes from behind him but he can’t turn.

Diego. Klaus closes his eyes though it changes nothing, he can still see him laying there, insides exposed and Klaus- He can’t do that again. He hears gunfire and explosions and the sky is on fire. He’s back on that hill again, his hands too useless to staunch the flow of blood that steals everything from him, his screams for a medic echoing unheard. He can’t let that happen again. 

“Diego, baby, listen to me.”

Klaus focuses; he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’s never done it before but he wills himself to be able to. He wills himself to reach for Diego, wherever he was.

“I am not gonna let you go, you hear me? Don’t you dare step into that light.”

But Diego can’t hear him. He’s vapor now, blue and shimmery, he’s confused - they all are, at the start - and he stands up from where his body lays and steps right through Klaus. 

No. Abso-fucking-lutely not. Klaus stands, turns, grabs for Diego. It’s shocking when he touches his arm, and it feels like it should hurt, what with his blood turning to ice and his ears ringing the way they do, but he can’t feel any of it. All he can feel - though not outwardly - is that he can touch Diego. 

“Klaus!” A younger voice cries this time, a boy, but Klaus can’t see anything from where he is, wrapped in a darkness only broken by the blue-hue of Diego’s shape. He holds on to that feeling, and it’s sickening and overwhelming, and it takes a few long honey-heavy seconds to stop seeing it after he screws his eyes, but darkness finally comes.

When he next opens his eyes, he’s in the mess hall, and Klaus has this nagging feeling that he’s missing something. The girl is speaking to him, the pleasant note of her voice oddly familiar.

“Listen, uh-”

She smiles at him, warm and hollow.

“What time is it?”

The girl looks at her empty wrist.

“Hm. It’s five. It hasn’t been five in a while.”

 _Five._ The word washes over him, sobering like an ice-bath, and he gets up, pushing the chair away from the table.

“I have to go.”

“I know.”

He’s in the hallway again, and it’s empty. There’s only one door, at the end of the hall, and he feels like he’s gliding there. His hands are shaking as he opens the door, and as soon as he does, he’s almost knocked to the ground by rivers of school children who run past him and spill out into the corridor. He doesn’t see them, he just turns to the side to give them more room to pass, as he stares into the large auditorium that’s swarming still with uniform-clad children. 

The boy. He flickers for a moment, his face floating just to the side of his head until settling back.

Five.

Klaus is right by him this time, sitting on the long bench, and the boy looks at him with a fierce look.

“Finally. What’s taken you so long?”

Time, Klaus thinks idly. That’s what’s taken so long. But he can’t speak, because he remembers. Flashes, it’s true, but he remembers, and the weight of it is paralyzing. He’s empty too, empty of so many things, so he looks at the boy and he speaks.

"I can't feel Ben. I can't feel anyone.” Klaus can’t feel Five, and he’s right there. "It's... eerie."

"It's because you can't use your powers here. And-" But he doesn’t finish the sentence, though Klaus can read in his eyes that it’s for the better.

"Oh." Strangely enough, it feels like Five’s words should make sense and this calms Klaus. "Alright." He stares out the window and, for a brief moment, the light seems rough, artificial. He frowns. "Where _is_ here?"

"Well, it's nowhere, really. But the most important thing is, it's not _now_. None of it is happening now. And, if I can help it, none of it is happening at all."

Klaus nods like he understands what’s happening, though he can’t quite get past the shape of the words to grasp their meaning.

“I think this is a different plane of reality,” Five continues, unperturbed by the lack of response, “we got here after you grabbed hold of Diego. I followed you here, wherever this may be, and now we have to find him, and you can take us back. Can you do that?”

“Sure.” Klaus says, and he feels like he’s smiling even though he has no idea why. “How?”

Five groans, burying his head in his hands. 

“Shit, you’re useless. I’ll find Diego, you just-” And then he’s gone.

Diego. The whole world encroaches on Klaus, and he’s right back in that hallway, staring at another door.

The room is dark, bathed in a blue afterglow. Klaus doesn’t remember entering but there he is, the door closed behind him, in the middle of a place that feels edgeless. There are blue fluttering lightning bugs, swarming softly around him, and he suddenly feels at peace. He shouldn't, since there’s something else inside him, a hollow sort of heaviness, one that pushes down as if it’s trying to rip his insides. But he can’t feel it, not really, not with the rush that washes over him. It’s nostalgia, it’s memories, it’s regret. Beautiful and heart-wrenching at the same time. It feels- it feels like a memory. Like Dave. He feels sick.

But this isn’t Dave. He knows it’s not, because this is a whole other frequency of hurt. The memory of Dave was deeper, in both the love and the despair. This is something else entirely - _someone_ else - this is warmth, familiarity. It’s the smell of your own bedsheets after spending some time away from home, that unconscious understanding of space as you reach out and turn the light switch even in pitch darkness. It’s all that, it’s unquestioned devotion. It’s death.

The swarm of blue has no one shape, but it has a voice, and it pours inside his mind.

“Come on, Klaus. You have to get out of here.”

Ben. 

Klaus feels like his throat is closing up.

“It’s not your time, and it’s definitely not your place. You shouldn’t be here, none of you should be here.”

“What-”

“Get out _now._ They need you, both of them. All of them.”

“No.”

The swarm slows its dance, and Klaus feels one of the blue bugs land on his cheek. It’s rolling down, followed by another, and another. He’s crying.

“Klaus.” Gentle. Soft. Heartbreaking.

“What if-” He doesn’t know what. “What if I want to stay?”

“You don’t; trust me.”

“I miss you.” _I miss you so much, beyond words, beyond what my heart can take, and it's not the first time I've missed you._

“I know. But we’ll see each other again. No time will have passed for me, but you? You have so much to do until then. You and the others.”

“I miss you.” Klaus repeats, because he does miss him, because it’s all that he can feel right now. 

“Klaus. You need to go.” 

His heart breaks at the voice, at the words. He shouldn’t feel so whole again, it shouldn’t feel this right. Blue fireflies engulf him, and he can feel Ben’s voice on his skin now, soft and fluttery yet scorching.

“I’m sorry.   
Thank you.  
Good bye.”

It breaks him.

He falls to his knees, rubbing at his eyes until there’s white sparks dancing everywhere, and when he takes his hands away, there’s light. He’s in the hallway again, and he can see Five, he can see Diego standing right beside him, but neither of them seem to be aware that he’s there.

What if he _does_ stay? It’s quiet here, everything is hazy and warm. He’s numb, though he can’t say whether it’s good or bad. He feels… beige. 

He can hear Five now, speaking in a sharp, annoyed voice, explaining something with his entire body, arms gesturing wide, and Diego’s just looking at Five. 

Diego’s blue. Diego’s dead.

Diego’s insides are outside, Diego doesn’t understand what’s happening.

Klaus was wrong about this place. This isn’t a good place. This is a place of death and pain, a place where Diego doesn’t belong. He has to take him back.

He’s dizzy with the feeling that hums through him at the sight. And no, it’s not the blood, the guts, the gore; it’s different. It’s strangely pure. He’s tingling all over, and he realizes that it’s the first time he’s actually felt anything real since he was there. _There._

Shit. 

They shouldn’t be there, none of them should be, and he suddenly starts to understand. 

“Five.” He says, and the boy turns, they both turn and they see him.

“Finally. Okay, can you get us out of here?”

“I—“”

“Klaus, focus.” Five snaps his fingers, and it’s annoying. He can feel annoyed. He frowns. “Hey! Focus. Think about how you got us here, and do whatever it is that you did and get us back. I’ll jump back a couple of seconds to stop it from happening, but you need to get us back.”

Diego, bleeding blue and staring blankly, doesn’t not seem to acknowledge him. 

“What’s happening?”

Five sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Sparrow Ben, that asshole, he unleashed the Eldritch Monster. It- it got Diego. I was just about to jump back a couple of minutes to stop him, but you just went and did… whatever the hell you just did; you manifested him? You grabbed hold of him, and for some reason I followed you here. And now we’re stuck.”

“We shouldn’t be here,” says Klaus, and Five scowls. 

“It’s a right old acid trip, isn't it? The sheer existence of this place breaks so many of my - tested, _working_ \- theories, that it's giving me a headache. There's no time; literally, no time in here for me to jump anywhere. I need you. God help us all, but I need you.” 

“Alright.” 

Alright, he says, like he has any idea what to do. But he focuses, he turns his attention inwards, he feels a thrum inside him, and he tries to grab on those feelings, those memories—Diego, in a pool of blood. The flail of a tentacle whooshing past him. The endless rage, the stubbornness to not let that happen again. The last thing he feels before a blue static engulfs them is Five’s hand taking hold of his, and then nothing.

  
***

Klaus is distraught, trying to summon any one of the many ghosts wandering lost in the mansion, but none of them dares show up, and then— the tentacles are out. The creature spills out with a sickening squench, tentacles thrashing, darting towards him. He freezes at the sight, and before he can tell what’s happening, there’s a shrill whoosh followed by a loud thud. He falls to the ground, Diego’s broad shoulders tackling him down, at the same time the large chandelier falls on top of Sparrow Ben. The tentacles writhe a couple of times, slapping the floor, the walls, but they soon start moving in smaller twitches that eventually stop. 

“Emo little shit.” 

Five. It was Five, heaving, dropping the axe he’s used to cut the chandelier’s suspension chord.

“Is everyone okay?”

Diego’s quick to jump to his feet, looking around. He nods.

Five zaps right by Klaus, grabbing him by his shoulders.

“Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, I mean-” He pushes a strand of hair away from his face. “What?”

“Never do that again, you hear me?”

“Do what?”

“Unbelievable. Just- let me deal with it next time, okay? No more ghost-corralling, no more of whatever the fuck that whole trip was. Okay?”

Klaus nods, cautiously. Confused. “Okay.” 

“You don’t remember any of it, do you? Jesus.” Five throws his hands up and zaps away, leaving Klaus alone, with this nagging feeling that he’s missing something big.

**Author's Note:**

> This whole acid trip of a thing started after I dreamt the scene in the auditorium (though Five wasn't there at the time) and the whole meandering through the long corridor, looking for something- someone?  
> Here's to more dream-inspired fics! Though the others can be less angsty.


End file.
